Wild Yeasthttp://www.wildyeastblog.com
Notes from my kitchen, in which I bake bread and raise a few other mattersWed, 27 Dec 2017 22:31:33 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.3http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/http://www.wildyeastblog.com/http://feeds.feedburner.com/~fc/WildYeast?bg=FFCC66&amp;fg=000000&ampWild YeastWildYeasthttps://feedburner.google.comMy New Thanksgiving Cranberry Breadhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WildYeast/~3/i7D6CXuedw4/
http://www.wildyeastblog.com/my-new-thanksgiving-cranberry-bread-2/#commentsTue, 21 Nov 2017 04:17:18 +0000http://www.wildyeastblog.com/?p=13988[Susan’s note: I first published this post in 2010. Since then, we’ve all had a few more shakeups, and I continue to be thankful beyond words for the family and friends who break bread with me, on Thanksgiving and through the year. ]

This is the recipe I said I would not post. It’s the recipe for the cranberry bread I’ll be serving for Thanksgiving this year.

Three years ago I wrote (and re-posted for the two years following that) about why I never changed Thanksgiving dinner, why it had been the same reliable cranberry bread for years (along with the same turkey, the same stuffing, and the same potatoes), and would be for years to come. It was the recipe from the back of the bag of Ocean Spray cranberries; you could get it there if you wanted it, and I wasn’t about to go messing with it.

So this year, I messed with it, a little. Added some whole wheat flour. Took away some sugar. Made the loaf a little bigger. Converted everything into grams because that just feels better to me. Call it fine tuning.

In the scheme of things, it’s not that big a deal. And by the scheme of things, I mean that for the past year — and for the first time ever in my life — my household has consisted of just me. Throw a new home, graduating from baking school, and becoming adept at toilet repairs into the scheme, and messing with a cranberry bread recipe is just not that big a deal.

It’s all good, because even really fine, reliable traditions can use a little fine tuning every once in a while, and even really fine lives can withstand some major turbulence. Because even when the bread changes, the house changes, the life changes, and the plumbing breaks, I still have so much to be thankful for. (And if it makes anyone feel any better, I didn’t change the stuffing recipe at all.)

Have a beautiful Thanksgiving, everyone!

Cranberry Bread

This bread freezes well. I suggest slicing it before freezing; once thawed, wrap it in foil and put it in a 350F oven for 10 minutes right before serving.

I have long extolled the virtues of Stollen, the classic German holiday yeasted fruitcake, as not only one of the tastiest ways to get your holiday-bread-shaped-like-baby-Jesus-in-the-manger fix, but as an extremely easy and forgiving bread to make.

This was evident when my colleague Susan and I were charged with making the Stollen for our baking school graduation. We tossed all the ingredients into the mixer and turned our attention to the half-dozen or so other breads on our day’s agenda. Almost an hour later, our cries of “Aaaaahhhh, the Stollen!” brought our panicked instructor running, and once he determined that the bakery was not burning down, he shot us a glare that demanded to know why two grown women couldn’t manage to act more dignified (especially considering, I suppose, the hallowed origins of this bread). The forgotten Stollen, however, didn’t care at all; the mixer was chugging along, with the Stollen dough swirling cheerfully and patiently inside. Most breads are ruined by excessive mixing, but it was going to take much, much more to get this baby’s swaddling in a twist.

My Stollen this year proved itself, fittingly, to be further willing to forgive; I inadvertently left the egg out of the dough, and nothing bad happened. Butter, sugar, and rum-soaked fruit save one from a multitude of sins, it seems.

This year for the first time, I folded a small rope of marzipan inside each loaf. This is traditional in some versions, but not mandatory, so feel free to leave it out. Or use twice as much, if you prefer.

The shaping of the Stollen is slightly more involved than the mixing, but even here, whatever you do will be forgiven. (Remember: you have butter, sugar, rum-soaked fruits–and, of course, baby Jesus–on your side.) Once the dough has been divided, preshaped into balls and bench-rested, the shaping proceeds like this:

Form a blunt-ended batard and flatten it slightly with your hand. With a thin rolling pin or wooden spoon handle placed lengthwise and just off-center, press down firmly, separating the dough into two sections. Roll out the cleft connecting the sections so it is about an inch wide.

Roll marzipan (about 45 grams for a small loaf) into a rope about an inch shorter than the dough’s length. Place the marzipan rope in the cleft and tuck the dough up around the ends. Fold the smaller section of dough over to rest upon the larger one. If there are fruits on the surface, pick them off and tuck them back inside so they don’t burn during baking.

1/3 teaspoon of each of these ground spices: cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, allspice, nutmeg

273 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature (should be pliable)

all of the sponge

all of the soaker

about 180 grams of marzipan, divided into four pieces

Finishing Ingredients:

clarified butter

fine granulated sugar

powdered (confectioner’s) sugar

Method:

Combine the soaker ingredients in a medium bowl. Cover and leave at room temperature for about 12 hours.

Meanwhile, combine the sponge ingredients in another medium bowl. Cover and ferment at room temperature for 12 hours.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine all of the final dough ingredients except the soaker and the marzipan. Mix in slow speed until all the ingredients are incorporated, about 4 or 5 minutes.

Continue mixing in medium speed until the gluten reaches full development. The dough should come together around the hook and should no longer stick to the sides and bottom of the bowl. This could take about 20 minutes or more, but will depend on your mixer.

Add the soaked fruits and mix on slow speed just until they are evenly distributed through the dough.

Transfer the dough to a lightly buttered container. Cover and ferment for 30 minutes at room temperature.

Turn the dough onto the counter. Divide into four pieces of about 375 grams each. Preshape the dough into balls and let them rest, covered, for 30 minutes.

Shape the loaves as shown above and place them on parchment-lined baking sheets (two per sheet). Slip them into a large plastic bag with a bowl of warm water. Proof for about 90 minutes, replenishing the water when it cools.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375F on convection setting or 400F on regular bake setting. You will also need steam during the initial phase of baking, so prepare for this now.

Bake for 10 minutes, open the oven door briefly to allow any remaining steam to escape, and bake for another 15-20 minutes. If you do not have convection, you may need to rotate the position of the baking sheets halfway through the bake to ensure even browning.

While the loaves are still warm, brush them with clarified butter. Dredge them in fine granulated sugar, brushing off the excess.

When cool, sift powdered sugar over the loaves. You can leave the stollen out overnight to let the loaves dry and the sugar crust up a bit.

YeastSpotting is a periodic collective showcase of yeasted baked goods and dishes with bread as a main ingredient. For more bread inspiration, and information on how to submit your bread, please visit the YeastSpotting archive.

There’s cornbread — spongy, sweet, and efficiently leavened with baking powder — and there’s Corn Bread: hearty and crusty, with the hard-won flavor than can only be achieved with yeast and time. And then there are these Corn Bread Rolls, which are fun to shape, if not precise replicas of the ears of maize that represent a bountiful harvest. Or little lopsided footballs, depending on your preferred meaning of Thanksgiving. Or maybe both, like when my dad took me to the thrilling Nebraska Cornhuskers game in Lincoln on Thanksgiving in 1965.

May your holiday be filled with what gives you sustenance, people you love, a little bit of excitement, and appreciation of blessings and hard-won victories, whatever yours may be.

To make 12 “ears,” I divided the dough into 24 pieces of about 50 grams apiece, and rolled them on the counter under my cupped hand to form balls.

After a 20-minute covered bench rest, the shaping fun begins. Each roll uses two dough balls. Flatten one ball into a disk about 4 inches in diameter. Roll the other ball to shape it into a point at one end.

Wrap the “husk” around the ear and pinch it closed at the fat end.

After the rolls have been proofed in a floured couche, arrange them on a semolina-dusted peel (as many as will fit on your baking stone at one time) before scoring the center portion of each roll in a crosshatch pattern to resemble kernels. Go quickly and don’t worry about being sloppy. No one will care.

The recipe makes 12 rolls, which just fit on my 15 x 23 inch baking stone. If your stone is smaller, bake them in two batches. It’s a little tricky to transfer the rolls from the peel to the stone while maintaining the space between them. Again, a quick jerk of the peel is better. But again, no one will care if it’s not perfect.

Combine all of the sponge ingredients and mix just until just incorporated. Cover and let rest at room temperature (about 70F) for 4-6 hours. When the sponge is ready to use, it will be doubled in volume and the surface pebbled with bubbles.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook, combine all of the dough ingredients, holding back a little of the water. Mix in low speed to incorporate, adjusting the water as needed to achieve a medium-soft dough consistency.

Continue mixing in low or medium speed to a medium level of gluten development. The graininess of the cornmeal will make it a bit challenging to pull a windowpane, but you should be able to do it if you’re gentle.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled container. Cover and ferment at room temperature for about an hour, until the dough volume increases by about half and it feels lively in your hands.

Turn the dough into a lightly floured counter and shape the ears as described above. Place them (right side up) on a floured couche.

Proof, covered, for about one hour, until the indentation left by a fingerprint fills in very slowly and about halfway.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven, with baking stone, to 475F. You will also need steam during the initial phase of baking, so prepare for this now.

Score the rolls as described above.

Once the rolls are in the oven, reduce the temperature to 450F. Bake for 8 minutes with steam, and another 17 minutes or so without steam, until the crust is golden brown.

They’re delicious, they’re beautiful, they’re fun to make, every one of them. So I truly mean no disrespect when I say Stop! I’m supersaturated! Quick, someone give me a lima bean (and if you know me, you’ll recognize a truly desperate plea here.)

But back to the rolls. I made them at home, the weekend before we started this descent into the sweet, rich, yeasty madness known as the Viennoiserie unit. I guess I thought… well, clearly I was unencumbered by the thought process, as Click and Clack would say.

But I can I still say like these rolls, and right now, that’s saying a lot. Maybe you’ll like them too.

In a small bowl, combine the granulated sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon.

In a food processor, pulse the pumpkin seeds a few times until about half are finely chopped (the rest will be coarsely chopped).

On a lightly-floured counter, roll the chilled pumpkin brioche dough into a rectangle 11 inches long and 16 inches wide.

Smear the entire surface of the dough with pepita cream in a very thin layer, leaving a 1-inch margin along one short edge of the dough. Brush the margin with water. (Alternatively, omit the pepita cream and brush the entire dough rectangle with water.)

Place flour, eggs, pumpkin, yeast, salt, and spices in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix at low speed for about 4 minutes. It is normal for the dough to be quite stiff at this point.

With the mixer in medium speed, add the sugar very slowly, in 3 or 4 increments. Mix for about 2 minutes following each addition. (If you add the sugar too quickly, mixing will take longer.)

Continue to mix in medium speed until the gluten reaches full development, i.e., you can stretch a paper thin, translucent “windowpane” from the dough.

Turn the mixer back to low speed and add the butter all at once. Mix for a minute in low speed, then turn the mixer to medium speed and mix until the butter is completely incorporated. You should now have a dough that is very soft and satiny, quite extensible (stretchy) but also strong and elastic (springs back after being stretched)

Transfer the dough to a covered, buttered container and ferment at room temperature for one hour.

Press the dough to degas it and refrigerate it overnight (8 – 12 hours).

Divide the and preshape the dough into the sizes and shapes you will need for your final product. (For the tart above, 300 g, preshaped into a ball. For small rolls, 50 g, also balls. For eight cinnamon rolls, 750 g, rolled into an approximately 8 x 10-inch rectangle.)

Space the preshaped dough on a parchment-lined baking sheet and slip the sheet into a plastic bag or cover with plastic wrap.

Refrigerate at least 20 minutes to re-chill thoroughly.

The dough is now ready to be shaped, proofed, and baked.

Pepita Cream

Yield: 3/4 cup (1/4 cup is needed for 8 cinnamon rolls)

Time:

Mix: 10 minutes

Refrigerate: up to 2 days (optional)

Bring to room temperature: about an hour

Ingredients:

56 g toasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

56 g fine granulated sugar

18 g flour

1.5 g (1/4 t.)salt

56 g unsalted butter, at room temperature

25 g egg (this is about half an egg; use the other half to egg-wash the tart)

2 g (1/2 t.) vanilla extract

Method:

Place pepitas, sugar, flour, and salt into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times, then process until the pepitas are very finely ground.

In a bowl, cream the butter with a hand mixer until fluffy.

Add the egg, vanilla, and a tablespoon or so of the pepita mixture, and beat until the egg is incorporated.

Add the remaining pepita mixture and mix until just incorporated.

Refrigerate for up to two days. Bring to room temperature before using.